Gutless on guns

Monday

Jul 15, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Editorial: Following last December’s massacre in Newtown, Conn., Governor Chafee and legislative leaders drew up a package of bills aimed at gun violence. Rather than join Connecticut in imposing tough new restrictions, unfortunately, the General Ass

Following last December’s massacre in Newtown, Conn., Governor Chafee and legislative leaders drew up a package of bills aimed at gun violence. Rather than join Connecticut in imposing tough new restrictions, unfortunately, the General Assembly has wilted before the gun lobby and approved watered-down legislation.

While the federal and Rhode Island constitutions guarantee citizens the right to bear arms, this is not unconditional. Careful regulation is needed to limit the spread of excessively dangerous weapons and try to keep guns out of the hands of criminals or people who suffer from severe mental illness.

Initially, nine measures were introduced, including bans on semiautomatic assault weapons with certain features and high-capacity magazines. In the end, all that remained were increased penalties for firearms that are either stolen or have obliterated serial numbers, and a commission that will study reporting mental-health data to the national background-check system. These provisions are now headed to the governor’s desk.

The commission, due to report back by Jan. 1, can perform a valuable service by making it harder for addicts and the seriously mentally ill to obtain guns. Federal law disqualifies anyone involuntarily committed or found “mentally defective” by a judge to possess a gun. But some states lag in entering mental-health data in the National Instant Background Check System.

Currently, Rhode Island reports no mental-health information to NICS.

The challenge is to provide law enforcement with relevant information while not discouraging efforts to seek treatment. An appropriate balance can be struck. Requiring background checks with every sale, as the state does, is appropriate, but it has limited value when only certain information turns up.

Disappointingly, Rhode Island bypassed other chances to strengthen public safety. After the Newtown slayings, Connecticut outlawed the kind of high-capacity magazines used by the shooter. Its prohibition, on devices carrying more than 10 rounds, has been embraced by several other states. High-capacity magazines are designed for the battlefield, and have no place in a civil society. Yet they will still be welcomed here.

Further, unlike Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, Rhode Island still places no limits on the number of guns or amount of ammunition a resident can buy.

Campaigning this past spring for national legislation to curb gun violence, President Obama said: “If there is just one step we can take to prevent more Americans from knowing the pain that some of the families ... have known, don’t we have an obligation to try?”